Protest is a right, but not when it endangers others

Any mass gathering is a risk at the moment and the police should not be forced to contend with them

The right to protest is a central tenet of all democracies. History is littered with examples of those once branded criminals, now hailed as heroes and agents of positive change.

We absolutely expect authorities to facilitate peaceful protest and act with proportionate restraint when boundaries are pushed into civil disobedience.

There is, however, a tipping point. Even those most sympathetic to the Extinction Rebellion cause surely cannot agree with emergency service resources being diverted at a time when the threat from Covid-19 is not just present, it is growing in Scotland.

Almost a thousand people tested positive for coronavirus in Scotland last week – the highest weekly increase in cases since May. This has not gone away.

The anti-mask protests, meanwhile, over the weekend were frankly dangerous not just to those taking part and their families but the officers sent to marshall them.

As Scotland’s national clinical director Jason Leitch put it “Do they think we’re making it up? That the world is some kind of global pandemic conspiracy?”

Perhaps they do, and one of the benefits of living in a democracy is the right to hold those views and to express them however they wish. However when that places the safety of others at risk, it cannot be justified.

The police already have all the powers they require to deal with illegal protest in whatever form it takes, and as we saw over the weekend are able to adopt a proportionate response. But they should not need to be in that position.

We would not seek to equate the aims of Extinction Rebellion with those of the anti-mask lobby.

They are similar only in the fact that they diverted our overstretched emergency services at a time of national emergency.

The right to protest has to be protected, but when it endangers others it cannot be countenanced.

Any demonstration which involves crowds gathering at the moment is endangering others.

That is a fact, not a mainstream media ‘conspiracy’. The evidence is available from grieving families across the world.

Covid-19 cares not for democracy, for political persuasion or the aims of individual protest groups, whatever they may be.

It is an invisible killer and it is still out there.